Leading the world alongside
JAMES Traub’s thoughtful piece on the subject in the Foreign Policy Magazine some months ago soon after Joe Biden entered the Oval Office in Washington, has possessed me ever since as the only way, this world can become a better place to live in.
The US has thus far ruled the world; seeing the back of the Soviet Union after the Cold War and pitched countries against each other mainly in self-interest to market its military merchandise of death and destruction to warring factions, and not so much for their welfare. But James Traub, the author of this enlightened piece who grew up as a child during the Vietnam War, hints positively at Joe Biden’s preference for diplomacy over coercion with Iran, and recoils over Robert Kagan’s account of unsuccessful wars in Vietnam, Iraq and now in Afghanistan which did not just lead to death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and tens of thousands of American soldiers but also utterly destroyed political consensus at home and smeared America’s reputation abroad. The customary US approach to coerce the not entirely compliant world, is certainly not in keeping with James Traub’s recipe of ruling the world alongside.
The customary US trait of use and discard was evident yet again after Pakistan facilitated the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, in not merely excluding Pakistan from the Global Environment Moot to which it invited 40 countries to participate, but also its climate Envoy John Kerry skipping Pakistan in his follow-up talks with Indian, Emirati and Bangladeshi leadership. This cut across the Pakistani Green stimulus Project seeking to create a hundred thousand jobs for the country’s youth just to plant trees, recognized by the World Bank pledging US$ 120 million financial Aid for the project; notwithstanding Imran Khan’s Billion Trees Plantation drive in the country which the Saudi Kingdom decided to emulate, and Pakistan committed to support.
”Joe Biden who had voted for the war in Iraq,” Traub says, “knows the price America paid for that mistake and hoped he had realized the harm it had done in the name of its calling to put the world right”, and advises as a post script, that the American leadership did not have to mean bellicosity or high-headedness nor should it mean leading from behind. It does however mean leading alongside; hinting at the fast rising power of the People’s Republic of China.
This is a square message to the United States whose self-righteousness has stuck in the world throat with its belated intervention in the Balkans posing to act as saviours in the humanitarian disaster; not only after standing by the Massacre of Bosnian Muslims, but thus far seeing nothing wrong in Israel’s subjugation of Palestine and the decades long mayhem in the Indian-occupied territory of Kashmir, despite its non-governmental ‘Freedom House’ Report revealing criticism by the UN and Amnesty International, of India’s human rights abuses, religious discrimination and increasing authoritarianism, which India dismissed and hounded Amnesty International to shut down its operations in that country.
‘Freedom House’ Report which comments on political rights and civil liberties across the globe since 1973 every year, pointedly referred to the controversial Indian Citizenship Act marginalizing its Muslim minority ever since Modi’s return to power. The Report highlighted, what the vilified citizens of ‘Indian occupied’ Kashmir, Indian activists and independent journalists had known for long. This is notwithstanding European Union’s Disinfolab chronicle unearthing fake Indian use of UN and other platforms in furthering its camouflaged nefarious campaign against Pakistan and China. India’s extremist RSS goons recently calling for mass elimination of Muslims and putting their women on sale over social media, not only explodes the myth of Indian Secularism which in actual fact had been built on deceit and deception from the very start, but also exposes the apathy and hypocrisy of the so-called super powers towards heinous crimes by a country desiring to join their eulogized ranks.
If the United States of America indeed wishes to re-establish its edict in world affairs, it will need a very careful course correction of which not just the Republican Donald Trump but also Joe Biden’s own Democratic George W. Bush lost track by resorting to strategic belligerence and needlessly dividing and fracturing the world by whipping up, what the latter termed the Clash of Civilizations after the Twin-tower 9/11 disaster, which many believe was manufactured by the US itself in order to invade Afghanistan to reach Central Asian riches.
The US has been obsessed with expansionist designs and operated beyond its domain forever it seems; be they Vietnam, Yugoslavia, the Far and Middle East, and now Afghanistan. As to the South China Sea where the issue principally should be territorial jurisdiction; much less the imagined maritime security issues, in throwing up an Alliance with India, Australia and Japan termed the QUAD as a counter-weight to the Chinese Belt and Road initiative across the globe specifically after CPEC, the US has been conducting military exercises to browbeat the Chinese in the South China Sea despite the fact that none of the QUAD countries except Japan has any littoral contiguity with the South China Sea.
The US would do well to take to rapprochement and convergence for competition rather than confrontation and divergence to dubiously run down adversaries, including its futile pursuit to contain China in the region using India as a proxy and keeping Asia in turmoil. The latest US thinking to develop an antidote to the Chinese Belt and Road initiative would be a welcome move if it were to provide safer and cheaper pastures for nations to choose from against what the Chinese Rail and Roadways offer, which would be considered fair competition for the user to benefit from.
With Joe Biden taking charge, and considering his first step in reviewing the Iranian nuclear deal one had thought that he was out to sincerely rebuild the tarnished US image of a hegemon, and would revisit his approach to other thorny US involvements elsewhere in the world. The hawks advising otherwise, seizing Afghan Foreign Reserves and laying preconditions to recognition of the Taliban Government which regained power in Afghanistan after American withdrawal, is contrary to the hard lesson both the NATO and Taliban had learnt having been brought together courtesy Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts for a graceful end to the long war costing the US dearly besides impeding economic development in Afghanistan and the region. This squarely points to re-activation of spoilers like India and its patronage of Daesh and TTP, as already being evidenced and cautioned by Pakistan.
As wisdom looked to prevail among Joe Biden and Xi Jin Ping at their virtual Summit; their positive body language and agreement to work together against the Environmental Challenge besides American President’s implied message of non-recognition of Taiwan’s Independence in the context of the One China Policy, Traub’s vision was soured with the US holding a Democracy Summit minus China and Russia; returning to the Cold War paradigm, and sowing seeds of division and confrontation.
What James Traub probably meant when he proposed leading the world alongside and not at the cost of the rising power of the People’s Republic of China, was to urge the US to conquer hearts and minds instead of eying chunks of territories or seek to enslave and dictate nations, which was a thing of the past. That alone is how this world can become a better place to live in.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
